Right to be Forgotten - Network and Home

by Diana K

While listening to my list on YouTube, one video reminded me of something - how the vision of a technological future of the computer revolution looked compared to today's reality.  Think of the video by Katy Perry: Last Friday Night.  This video was made before Alexa or any other voice-activated Internet computer became part of the household.

In the video Last Friday Night the song lyrics talk about a group having fun, socializing, and even having an uncle come out of retirement to play his sax.  In the morning when the parents arrive home, they ask about the lost boy in her bed with a smile.

Now, imagine today someone having the same type of party as shown in the video with a voice-activated Internet computer and home video monitoring system.  Surely the party and many of the participants' activities would be passed around on the Internet without their permission; in essence, no privacy at all, even at your own home.

Whereas when Last Friday Night was made, there was no all-snooping, listening, or video recording by home Internet devices.  At worst, a few random pictures might wind up being put online by someone.  It is now the 2020s and we have to have concerns of living in a world where there is no privacy or no right to be forgotten while one is in the process of maturing.

For those of us who were born in the 1960s through the 1970s, it was a time when what you did while you were still growing up was not saved on a server farm.  So when you went to party in high school or college and did some of the things shown on Last Friday Night no one knew except friends who were there with you.  Years later, there would be no surprising "dirty tricks" video used against you in an ambush interview.

What I and others who were part of an older time frame of the computer revolution remember is that the old philosophical thought of cataloging and databasing everyone was quite different.  The original practice of cataloging people was done by punched cards, "do not fold, staple, or mutilate" or heaven help you with what followed from the mainframe priests.

With home computers, hobbyist computers, and homebrew computers that were not multitasked so that everyone could use their system without waiting or begging for computer time, I and others hoped that the future would have remained like a society where it was different than the old society, a society not controlled by mega-technology companies.

Indeed, today some feel controlled by mega-technology companies.  When a company gets to a point where it is so entrenched and new ways die too soon, a Skunk Works approach is needed.

The challenge is how does one start over with a new type of Internet where a mechanism to be completely forgotten is built in?  The reason for this is that no one can live without having privacy; we all need it.  Also, think of it this way.  Do you want to live with an Internet that is so all-knowing that it knows and logs when you go to the bathroom, whether your bathroom trip was number one or number two, logging how much number one or number two, etc.?  No!

No one would want to live in an environment like that.  Going to the bathroom is a private moment for everyone.  No one wants someone saying they need to collect this information about you and feign innocence regarding possibly sharing it or humiliating you.

In my house I deliberately do not have Alexa or any Internet devices in the bedroom.  With my laptop, like in the movie Snowden, the camera is covered with paper, as many do not know that it is easy for anyone to turn on your camera even when your laptop or tablet phone is off.

There are times I used an older laptop which was before Wi-Fi and modems were put on chips, when you actually have to connect a Wi-Fi card or modem.  I do wonder how much snooping was done.

If one were to develop a new Internet for privacy, how would a group make it so that it follows an open-source management?  No one company or group of technology companies could control it.  How would a backbone be established that is fluid so that it couldn't be cut or given a kill switch?  How could it be made so that the use is primarily for recreational and some mom-and-pop online services and products?

Many questions, I have some ideas.  Part of it is to make it so that if someone snoops or gets a packet, the packet is nonsense unless there is a blockchain point and key to decode the nonsense.  Next is to make the nonsense more than one key or blockchain needed, something akin to DNA.  In DNA you can get a segment and for some parts make the proper protein, but for other advanced proteins you need to provide the original condition's environment before you can use that DNA segment.  This is the idea that I'm thinking of for a new right-to-be-forgotten Internet.

Even with technological changes, it is not enough because any technology can be subverted and even a beginner will eventually learn with their determination and learning ability to see what works, what doesn't work, and to make guesses on how to correct what doesn't work.

Part of the solution will mean a society where, like in the video Last Friday Night people mind their own business and let others have private moments as others let them have private moments.  It is better to live in a society where not everything is recorded and to begin to increase Internet maturity to know when not to share and to reduce the impulse to be baited when someone's privacy is violated.

It is like in Lady Godiva where an English noblewoman had to ride through the village naked for a King to give in to making life better, and the people of the village had to have the maturity and strength not to peep as she was riding through.  We need to teach others that in an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-listening, and all-logging Internet, don't play the technology trust game.  Practice privacy for all.